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Behind-the-scenes problems that have dogged the UK's local loop unbundling (LLU) industry appear to be showing signs of improvement.

So says the Office of the Telecommunications Adjudicator (OTA), which is responsible for overseeing the development of the LLU sector in the UK.

Last month the OTA flagged up problems warning that the situation was so bad it was giving "significant cause for concern".

"Current poor performance is being caused by a combination of automation instability, poor software problem handling, volume growth and resource shortfalls. This has led to an overall deterioration in the quality of delivery," said the OTA last month.

But in its latest assessment the OTA suggests that some progress has been made.

"The operational problems reported over the last couple of months are showing some improvement," it said. "The Right First Time KPI [Key Performance Indicator] is improving on a week by week basis but is still well below target. Current performance is affected by a combination of automation and operational problems."

The OTA went on: "After many months of steady progress BT, the OTA and LLU operators have been disappointed with the recent setbacks and are focused on getting back on track. Signs of improvement are apparent; however it is too early to say we are on a sustainable trend," said the OTA.

There are currently more than 140,000 unbundled phone lines in the UK with numbers increasing by 4,000 a week. ®